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ROBERT LETTIS HOOPER 

DEPUTY QlJARTER-My^STER GENERAL 



IN THE 



CONTINENTAL ARMY 



AND 



^ VICE-PRESIDENT OF NEW JERSEY 

By CHARLES HENRY ^ART 

HoNORAKV Member of the New Jersey Historical Soc.etv 



PHILADELPHIA 
1912 






Fifty Copies Reprinted from " The Pennsylvania Magazine of 
History AND Biography" for January, 1912. 



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COLONEL ROBERT LETTIS HOOPER 



This monograph is the result of a certain amount of 
inquisitiveness to learn who was "Mr. Hooper," mentioned 
in a letter written by Governor William Frankhn, in 1771, 
that the writer was editing^ and of the fact that after iden- 
tifying "Mr. Hooper" as Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr., no 
biographical notice of him could be found so that 
the only way to get one was by writing it. Hooper's 
career has been very difficult to trace, owing to there 
having been three, if not four, generations bearing the 
same name, and also from his having lived part of 
his hfe in New Jersey and part in Pennsylvania, with 
lightning changes from one to the other. Nevertheless, 
it seems odd that it has never been attempted before and 
that a man, who was so prominently before the people at 
such an important epoch in the country's history, should 
not sooner have had the events of his life preserved in 
a consecutive form, especially when there is ample material 
at hand. This apparent neglect may arise from the fact 
that, as we shall see, he left no descendants. In the 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania alone, there are at least 
sixty autograph letters from him covering his career be- 
tween 1758 and 1793, the period of his business and public 
activities and his land speculations. Yet so httle is 
accurately known of him that his middle name is almost 
uniformly printed "Lettice." 



» Letters from William Franklin to William Strahan, Penna. Mag. of 
Hist, and Biog., Vol. ixxv, p. 450. 



1 



2 Colonel Bohert Lettis Hooper. 

The first of the family that we know was "Major 
Daniel Hooper of the Parish of Christ Church and Island 
of Barbadoes," whose will dated October 1, "in the twelfth 
year of his Majesty's Reign," which was 1700, recites that 
the testator "being now suddenly designed off the 
Island," makes this his last Will and Testament etc. It 
seems that the precaution was a wise one, for a few 
months later, on February 12, 1700-01, his will was proved 
in Barbadoes,^ while ten days later, an "Inventory of the 
estate of Daniel Hooper of Barbadoes," was filed in New 
York by Captain Jeremiah Tottill as administrator.* 
From the Will being proved in Barbadoes on Feby. 12, 
and an Inventory, being filed in New York, as early as 
Feby. 22, it seems quite certain that Major Daniel 
Hooper died here on his visit, that his will was proved 
at his place of domicile and that Capt. Tottill was Ad- 
ministrator of the effects he left in this country. 

In his Will he names four daughters : Mary, Elizabeth, 
Anne and Elinor and four sons: Daniel, the eldest; Robert 
Lettis, the second; and John and William, appoints Daniel 
and Robert Lettis, Executors, and adds "by way of 
caution and advice to my aforesaid four sons and it is 
my desire that so long as with convenience they may then 
do continue unanimous and united as well in heart as in 
Estate and interest, well knowing how great a strong 
thing and support they will be to each other when pos- 
sibly separating may produce other efforts." 

Daniel Hooper had evidently been in New Jersey at an 
earlier day, for we find that he was a member of the 
Governor's Council September 12, 1679, when he was 
commissioned one of the Justices of the Peace for the 
County Court at Elizabethtown and Newark, and he was 
again a member of the Governor's Council August 14, 1683.* 

' A certified copy of the will made April 19, 1722, is on record at 
Trenton, in Deed Book B B, p. 363. 

* Collection of New York Historical Society, Abstract of Wills, p. 377. 

* New Jersey Archives Vol. xiii, p. 99 and Vol. xxi, p. 43. 



Colonel Rohert Lettis Hooper. 3 

Later he returned to Barbadoes, for on February 27, 
1692-3, a Patent issued to " Daniel Hooper of the Island 
of Barbadoes, Merchant, for 648 acres in Somerset county, 
bounded Northeast by the Rareton river. South east by 
the commons. South west by the commons and the river 
and Northwest by the South branch of said river."^ He 
seems to have endeavored to evade the payment of 
"dutys" on a cargo of "Rumm," from Barbadoes by 
ordering it to Perth Amboy instead of to New York, in 
which he acted on Cartaret's declaration, that "all vessels 
shall be free that come and trade with East Jersey," 
which, however, clashed with the orders of Andros '^ putt- 
ing a duty of 20/ per Hogshead on Rumm." Accordingly 
"the 'Ketch' was taken up to New York and made to 
enter there and pay the Dutys before she could carry her 
Rumm to New Jersey" and this case was one of the 
reasons given by the Attorney General, in an opinion to 
Earl of Bellomont, June 30, 1698, "why Perth Amboy 
should not be a Free Port."' 

Whether Robert Lettis Hooper, the first of the name 
in this country, came with his father on his last voyage 
to America or was here previously I cannot tell, but on 
August 16, 1701, he took out a marriage hcense in New 
York to marry Mrs. Sarah Graham.^ Later he was the 
progenitor of the Sugar Trust, by having an Act passed 
by the Assembly of New York giving him the exclusive 
right to refine sugar, which was repealed in 1727, because 
he "neglected entirely the said manufacture."^ The cause 
of this neglect was doubtless his removal to Perth Amboy, 
New Jersey, whence he was nominated by the Governor, 
January 2, 1724-5, Chief Justice of the colony, taking his 
seat at Burlington, March 30, 1725, although his commis- 
sion, in the New Jersey Historical Society, is not dated 

• New Jersey Archives, Vol. xxi, p. 193. 

• Ibid. Vol. ii, p. 232. 

' New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. ii, p. 142. 

• New York Colonial Documents, Vol. v, p. 847. 



4: Colonel Rohert Lettis Hooper. 

until February 29, 1727-8. He held office, with a short 
intermission, until his death early in 1738-9, when his 
remains were taken to New York for interment.^ He does 
not appear to have been bred to the law, which, strange 
as it seems to us to-day, was not a pre-requisite for high 
judicial office in the provinces in colonial days. He was 
a member of the Assembly of New Jersey from Somerset 
county from 1721 to 1727, and in 1723, was appointed one 
of the commissioners to sign the first regular issue of New 
Jersey paper-money, which bears date March 25, 1724. He 
was Warden of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Perth Amboy, 
in 1726 and vestryman from 1734 to 1738. The early 
records show that he was commonly called "Collonel," as 
also that he was a member of the Governor's Council in 
1735, his appointment to which was induced by his being 
"truly affectionate to his Majesty and the Royal Family, 
and in very high esteem and reputation in his country."^** 
The will of the Chief Justice, dated January 27, 1738, and 
proved February 19, 1738-9, mentions wife Sarah and 
children Robert Lettis, James and Isabella. ^^ 

Robert Lettis Hooper Junior, as he was known until the 
death of his father, seems to have been interested in mills 
and in lands. In June, 1725, he advertises, as "Junior," 
from his plantation at Rocky Hill, Somerset county,N. J., 
and in the same way in August, 1731, when he offers 
land for sale. On April 14, 1738, shortly after his father's 
death he was chosen, without the "Junior," one of the 
Council of New Jersey and on April 19, 1740, was ap- 
pointed to secure enlistments in Somerset county. March 
28, 1749, he was made one of "His Majesties Justices of 
the Peace and Clerk of the Peace for Somerset county," 
and in June, 1751, was one of the Managers of the Tren- 
ton Lottery. In the Pennsylvania Journal for August 21, 

» Field's Provincial Courts of New Jersey, p. 126. 
" New York Colonial Documents, Vol. vi, p. 25. 

" Isabella married Philip Kearny and was the ancestress of General 
Philip Kearny, of the war of Secession. 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 5 

1758, Robert Lettis Hooper advertises certain property 
for sale upon which he lives and which he will show to 
purchasers, or his sons, Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr., and 
Jacob Roeters Hooper, hving at his Mills, opposite to 
Trenton, will do the same in his absence. A similar ad- 
vertisement is inserted July 12, 1759. These are the first 
mentions we find of Robert Lettis Hooper, the third of 
the name, and the advertisements show him to have been 
a son of Robert Lettis Hooper the second, who died 
April 20, 1785,'' in his seventy-seventh year and was 
buried in the Episcopal grounds in Trenton." 

In the Pennsylvania Journal for December 10, 1761, 
there is an advertisement of the dissolution of the part- 
nership existing between Robert and Jacob Hooper, and 
on December 23, 1762, Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr., adver- 
tises good old Madeira "at his store in Water Street, three 
doors above Chestnut." His business difficulties caused 
him to appeal to the Assembly of Pennsylvania and he 
was "granted the enlargement of his person forever 
against all debts contracted before his surrender Feb- 
ruary 14, 1764"; while on May 4, 1768, a bill was pre- 
sented to the Provincial Council of New Jersey for his 
relief. This "enlargement of his person," he did not feel, 
however, acquitted him of his debts, but felt as an honor- 
able man they should be paid, so we find a letter from 
him to Samuel Howe, Burlington, N. J., dated Phila- 
delphia, August 28, 1772,'^ offering to make conveyance 
of 1000 acres in Bedford county, Pa., in settlement of a 
debt due "at the time of my surrender ... It is my de- 
sire to do justice to all my Creditors and at present this is 
the only offer I can make you." He then adds character- 

•» Letter from Robert Lettis Hooper to James Wilson from Belleville, 
April 22, 1785, in the Wilson Papers, Hist. Soc. of Penna. This is his 
first letter without "Junr" and it is rather amusing to find a letter from 
him in the same collection, of Dec. 28, 1785, where from force of habit he 
has added "Junr." after his name and then drawn his pen through it. 

" Hall's Hist, of Presb. Church in Trenton, p. 248. 

" Gratz Collection, Hist. Soc. of Penna. 



6 Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 

istically, "You may depend on the titles being indisput- 
able and the land good." Before this he had, in June, 
1765, visited Sir William Johnson to look over his land 
with a view to making a settlement upon it and later 
crossed the Alleghenies and made surveys of the land of 
the proposed new colony for the Whartons and George 
Croghan, which led to his employment by Governor 
William Franklin in April, 1771, to give an account of the 
country he had gone out to survey at Fort Pitt. From 
his very intelligent and informing letter of May 22, 1771*^ 
it would appear that his home then was in Northampton 
county. Pa., for he speaks of "Three germans that came 
up with me from Northampton county in Pennsylvania." 
At this time Hooper was in correspondence with Sir 
WilHam Johnson, concerning his journey to Fort Pitt and 
was an apphcant for the post of Surveyor-General of the 
new proposed colony when it should be erected. He was 
back again in Philadelphia in March, 1772^° but the next 
Fall was again at Fort Pitt, whence he wrote to William 
Frankhn, September 15, 1772." In the same collection 
is a copy of a deed from William Frankhn to Robert 
Lettis Hooper, Jr., "of Trenton," dated April 19, 1774, 
showing that he had gone back to New Jersey; but on 
August 13, 1775, he wrote from Philadelphia the following 
letter to Capt. John Lowdon,^^ bubbling with patriotism, 
which is the first view we have of him in the Revolution. 



15 Vide Letters from William Franklin to William Strahan, Penna. 
Mag. of Hist, and Bigg., Vol. xxxv, p. 450. 

^^ Vide Letter from Hooper to William Franklin in Amer. Phil. Soc. of 
tliis date. 

1' Etting Collection, Hist. Soc. of Penna. 

1' John Lowdon's commission dated June 25, 1775 " to be a captain of 
a company of riflemen in the battalion commanded by Colonel William 
Thompson in the Army of the United Colonies," is printed in full in Penna.. 
Arch. Ser. V., Vol. ii, pp. 3-4. His company was sworn in June 29th and 
on July 8th was on its way to Cambridge, Mass. On January 1, 1776, the 
rifle battalion became the First Regiment Continental Army. Capt. Low- 
don when he raised his company, lived near the present town of Mifflin- 
burg, Union Co., Pa., where he died in Feby., 1798, in his sixty-eighth year. 
Joseph Shippen, Jr., writes to the governor of Penna. from Lancaster 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 7 

Philadelphia August 13, 1775. 
Dear Sir: — 

We hope this letter will find you safe at the head of 
your Company, acting in Defence & support of American 
Liberty — a glorious cause, which must stimulate the 
Breast of every honest, virtuous American and force him, 
with undaunted Courage & unabated vigour, to oppose 
those Ministerial Robers. We hope the Contest will be 
ended where it began, and that the effusion of blood may 
be providentially prevented, but at the same time, we 
hope to see American Liberty perminantly established or 
to have the honor, ere long, to serve in her righteous Cause, 
& we are well convinced that these sentiments prevail 
throughout this Province. You can't conceive what a 
Martial Spirit prevails here & in what order we are. Our 
Battalions with the Light Infantry Companys are very 
expert in all the manoeuvres & are generally well fur- 
nished with Arms. Several Companys of Riflemen are 
formed in this City and the adjacent Countys who are be- 
come expert in shooting: besides we have 16 Row Galleys 
with Latteen Sails now building — some of them are allready 
Rigged & Man'd. These Galleys are rowed with from 24 
to 30 Oars & carry each one Gun from 18 to 32 pounds, 
besides swivel Guns Fore & Aft. We are told by experi- 
enced Men that these Galleys will prevent any Ships of 
War from coming up this River. All the Coast to Georgia 
is alarmed and prepared to oppose our unnatural enemies. 
Where then can these English Bastards, those servile 
engines of Ministerial power go to steel a few Sheep? 
God and Nature has prescribed their Bounds. They can't 
delluge our Lands nor float their Wooden Batterys 
beyond the bounds prescribed, nor dare they to penetrate 
so, as from afar, to view those high topt Mountains which 

April 19, 1756, recommending the appointment of " Mr. John Lowden 
living at Susquehannah" as Ensign in his company in Colonel Clapham's 
regiment. He says " He is a young gentleman of good sense, great activity 
and spirit." 



8 Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 

separates the lower plains from our Canaan and from 
whence, should their folly or madness prompt them to 
attempt it, could come forth our Thousands and tens of 
thousands with Guygantick strides to wash the plains 
with the blood of those degenerate invaders of the libertys 
of Mankind. 

We, in conjunction with many others, presented a 
Memorial to Congress,^® representing the threatned 
encroachments of the Connecticut Invaders of our Prov- 
ince. It was well received and the Connecticut Delegates 
& those of this province were desired to write to their 
people respectively & inclosed I send you a copy of the 
Connecticut Letters to Wyoming. Stansbury^" has it in 
charge and it seems to be all that that Honorable Body 
could do in the affair. 

Our partiality for the Rifle Battahon is so great that 
we are very anxious to hear of their having distinguished 
themselves in some great enterprize. This partiality is 
natural and allowable, when from our personal acquaint- 
ance with many of their Commanders we can, and do, 
with martial pride, celebrate their distinguished abilitys 
as Rifleman & Soldiers. 

We are with great Esteem 

Dear Sir 
Your most humble Servts 

Robert Lettis Hooper, Junr. 
Reuben Haines." 



" The petition was presented to Congress July 31, 1775 and the subject 
was constantly before Congress during the rest of the year. Vide Journals 
of Congress. 

" One Stansbury was appointed by Congress December 22, 1775 a 
Lieutenant in the Navy, he being third on the list which was headed by 
John Paul Jones. 

'* Reuben Haines was a Quaker Brewer and a friend and neighbour of 
Doctor Franklin. Although he signed this letter it is all in the hand- 
writing of Hooper. It belongs to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 9 

P. S. Present our Compliments to Mr. Lukins" & Mr 
North." Mr. Musser^^ desires his comphments to you & 
them. 

August 17'" 1775 

Since the date of this letter Hawkins Boon^' has been 
down and says the Connecticut people have not attempted 
any incroachments lately & from circumstances we have 
little reason to apprehend they will. 

Subsequently Hooper settled in Northampton county, 
Pa., which became the scene of his activities in the revo- 
lutionary struggle. He became Deputy Quarter Master 
General; one of the three Superintendents of "Magazines 
to be laid up for the Continental army," his department 
covering Northampton, Bucks, Berks and Philadelphia 
counties in Pennsylvania and Sussex county in New Jersey; 
Assistant Commissary of Purchases and Deputy Commis- 

" Jesse Lukens was a son of Surveyor-General John Lukens and went 
as a volunteer with Captain Matthew Smith's Lancaster company to 
Cambridge. He returned just in time to join Plunket's expedition against 
the Connecticut settlers at Wyoming, upon which he was mortally wounded 
Christmas day, 1775, and died a few days afterwards. 

" Caleb North (1753-1840) of Chester Co., Pa. Captain in the 4th Bat- 
talion who was sent from Cambridge to join Arnold's Canada Expedition 
and subsequently became Lieut. Colonel of the 2nd Penna. Line with which 
he was at York Town and after the surrender was entrusted with the 
charge of the British prisoners on their march to Lancaster, Pa. He was 
President of the Pennsylvania State Society of the Cincinnati from 1828 
imtil his death, when he was the last survivor of the Field Officers of the 
Pennsylvania Line. 

^* John Musser, a prominent Land agent in Lancaster, Pa., and specu- 
lator in British goods. 

^* Hawkins Boon was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant of the 4th Company 
of the 2nd Battalion of Northumberland Militia, January 24, 1776, and on 
October 4, 1776, Captain in Colonel Josiah Harmer's 6th Penua. Regi- 
ment; was subsequently transferred to the 12th and commanded the 7th 
Company in Morgan's Corps of Partisans. He was killed and scalped 
July 30, 1779, after the surrender of Freeland Fort, near Northumberland, 
Pa., to the British, he being off on a scout and not aware of the capitula- 
tion. Vide Journals of Chaplain Rogers and of Major Norris in SuUivan's 
Expedition, in one of which it is stated, that 40 men were killed with him 
and the other 14, both contemporary accounts. Which one is true ? 



10 Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 

sary of Transportation for Sullivan's army against the Six 
Nations. Commissions were issued to him April 2, 1778, 
and February 23, 1779, which are both long after his 
appointment and service, a not at all uncommon occur- 
rence in the army and navy of that period, often occasion- 
ing much dissention and many questions affecting pre- 
cedence and rank. All of these offices show that Hooper 
was a man of consideration and had the confidence of 
the Commander-in-Chief. 

His earliest official military act of which we have record 
was when he writes to Owen Biddle of the Board of 
War from 
SiR._ Easton April 9'M777-« 

In obedience to your orders of the 3 Inst. I have sent 
Expresses thro' the greatest part of this County to pro- 
cure Teams, and have the pleasure to inform you that I 
have been pretty successfull, as you will see by this 
inclosed Return, which is but a part of the number en- 
gaged, for all my Expresses are not yet returned.— I have 
reason to believe there is now gone, and getting ready to 
go about eighty Teams from County, and if your Honor- 
able Board thinks more Teams will be wanted, I shall be 
glad to receive your 'positive Commands. 

I found it absolutely necessary to promise the people 
that they might expect to draw Rations, for they were 
backward in going, fearing it would be impossible for 
them to supply themselves. 

The people go in full expectation of my paying them 
on their Return to this County, if it is proper I am very 
willing to undertake that trouble. 

I am with great respect 

Sir, your hum* Serv' 

RoB'^. L. Hooper, Jr. 

This official letter was accompanied by the following 
private personal one to Biddle of even date. 

-^ Penna. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. xxiv, p. 390. j 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 11 

^ ^ Saucon April 9"^ 1777" 

Dear Owen: — 

Tell me by a line if I have acted right— I live about 
5 Miles South of Bethlehem near the Great Road & it is 
best to order your Express (if you send) directly to me-- 
Tell me all the news, and what you think of the talked of 
Invasion— Has France actually lent us 5 Million of 
Livers? in haist I am 

It will be best for me -^^ ^- Hooper, Jr. 

to pay the people. 

^ From its opening "Tell me by a line if I have acted 
right," it is plain that Hooper was in his novitiate as 
Deputy Quarter Master General and in doubt as to the 
scope of his authority, and it also shows that while he 
dates his official letters from Easton as his head-quarters, 
he did not actually live in the town, but that his home 
was at "Saucon," "about five miles south of Bethlehem." 

Robert Lettis Hooper's name first occurs in the Journals 
of Congress, July 9, 1777, when a letter from him was 
read and referred to the Board of War. The following 
day it was "Ordered that 10,000 dollars be paid to 
Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper or his order on account of 
flour and beef purchased for the use of the army." He 
objected to the form of the Oath of Allegiance to the 
state and refused to subscribe to it, and was charged with 
favoring the Tories and oppressing the patriots in the 
impressment of "Waggons and Teams," which involved 
him in many contentions. These charges were taken 
up by the Council of Safety which wrote to President 
Wharton.^* 

Lancaster 18, October 1777 
* * * * "We cannot forbear to hint that a more 
careful attention to the appointment of officers would be 

" Penna. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. xxiv, p. 391. 
'* Penna. Archives, Vol. v., p. 684. 



12 Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 

highly beneficial. These men in several instances by 
oppressing our Fi lends and excepting our secret Enemies 
from public Burdens, that of Waggons being impressed 
in particular, have but two successfully contributed to 
impress people with the notion that it is most for their 
Interest to be Tories. In the Quartermaster's Line we 
shall mention one or two among those we have heard 
Complaints — Mr. Robert Lettis Hooper of Easton and 
Mr John Biddle of Reading " ,; 

That Hooper was awake to these charges against him 
and ready to forestall them is shown by the following 
letter^' to '' His Excellency Thomas Wharton Esq'." 

gjj.._ Easton October 20'': 1777 

I received your Excellency's Letter of the 8th Instant, 
and have the pleasure to inform you, that I can hire in 
this County and in Sussex County in New Jersey, as many 
Teams as are from time to time necessary to answer the 
purposes in my Department, without being troublesome 
to your Excellency or the Majestrates of this County. I 
have never impressed any Teams but when the exigency 
required their being provided with the utmost dispatch, 
and then those only who refused to serve and were un- 
friendly to our Cause 

I have in almost every exegency called on the Majes- 
trates for their Assistance, and will continue so to do 
I am, sir. Your Excellency's 

most hum' servant 
Rob'. Lettis Hooper, jun. 

Depu'^ Qu' M Gen'. 

In consequence of the information from the Council, 
President Wharton advised the Board of War, which 
called forth the following reply.^" 

^ Collection of William Nelson, Paterson, N. J. 
* Penna. Archives, Vol. v, p. 756. 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 13 

Sir: War Office November 8, 1777 

I am directed to inform you that the Board have taken 
into their consideration your Letter relating to the abuses 
alledged to be committed in the Quarter Master Generals 
Department & particularly the charges made against Col 
Hooper & Col Biddle & they are of opinion that an im- 
mediate inquiry should be made into matters wherein the 
pubhc Interest is so materially concerned. I am to 
request your Excellency will please favour the Board with 
the Evidence on which these charges are founded & espe- 
cially the Testimony against Col Hooper, which they wish 
to have at an early Day as he, in consequence of the 
Charge against him being transmitted to General Mifflin, 
has attended the Board & called upon them for an Enquiry 
into his conduct. 

I have the Honour to be etc. 

Rich. Peters 

Secy. 

A month later Robert Levers, who seems to have been a 
secret agent for the state, wrote to Timothy Matlack" from 

Easton December 8, 1777. 
"Agreeably to the Directions I received, when last at 
Lancaster from the Supreme Executive Council, that on 
my return home, I should make Enquiry whether or not 
Mr. Henry Vanfleck had certainly procured a Pass from 
Col. Hooper, at the time he, Mr. Vanfleck passed the 
Delaware, about three weeks ago. I have made the neces- 
sary Enquiry, and in consequence thereof, beg leave to 
refer Council to the enclose affidavits. * * * With respect 
to Mr Hooper's discouraging the Inhabitants of this 
county to take the oath of allegiance, it has been too 
general and too glaring to deny; and with respect to 
Passes, Evidence thereof is before Council. But as to his 
Partiality in pressing Waggons to the distress of Whiggs 
and the Relief of Tories, I believe the Information is ill 
founded." 

" Penna. Archives, Vol. vi, p. 77. 



14 Colonel Robert LeUis Hooper. 

It is plain however, from an Order^^ promulgated 
by the Board of War, on January 22, 1778, while 
these charges were still pending against Hooper, that 
they were not regarded as very serious, owing doubt- 
less to Levers' report that the charge of oppression 
was unfounded. 

"Ordered That Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper D. Q. 
Master General exercise the same Powers in the hiring 
or impressing Teams he has heretofore done under the 
orders of His Excellency General Washington or other 
his Superior Officer, any Regulation or Direction from 
any Person not acting in Virtue of the orders or the 
Powers vested in His Excellency within the Limits therein 
mentioned, notwithstanding." 

Nevertheless the Council, from Lancaster, on February 
7, 1778, advises the Delegates in Congress in regard to 
the charges against Hooper based upon the letter from 
Levers and forward the proofs against him.^^ It would 
appear however, by the following letter from President 
Wharton to Thomas McKean that Hooper, not getting 
the satisfaction he required from the authorities officially, 
took the matter into his own hands and got some personal, 
if unofficial satisfaction.^^ 

Dear Sir:— Lancaster Feb. 15, 1778 

"An incident at Reading some days past disturbs me. 
Mr. Sergeant^^ being then as Attorney General at the 
Quarter Sessions was assaulted and beaten by Robert 

3* Penna. Archives, Vol. vi, p. 199. 

^ Ibid. Vol. vi, p. 242. 

2* Ibid. Vol. vi, p. 266. 

'5 Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant (1746-1793) was a grandson of Jonathan 
Dickinson, first President of Princeton college where he was graduated. 
He studied law in New Jersey and in July, 1777, became Attorney-General 
of Pennsylvania, which he held until 1780. He was active in the reUef of 
the sufferers from yellow fever in Philadelphia and fell a victim to the 
pestilence. 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 15 

Lettis Hooper Esquire on account of some information 
the former gave in the late Council of Safety of this State. 
* * Many and loud complaints were I understood made 
to assembly last fall against Mr Hooper & others. * * * 
Congress desired evidence as to the first. Some affidavits 
were taken. One was drawn for Mr. Sergeant to attest; it 
related to the Countenance given by Mr. Hooper in fur- 
nishing a letter to one Leonard, an avowed Jersey Tory to 
pass thro' Pennsilvania. It happened that Mr. Sergeant 
left town without finishing this affidavit. Another, drawn 
for Mr. Arndt,^* of Northampton, was left in the same 
state. When Mr. Arndt was traveUing homeward he was 
threatened & insulted by Hooper & threats were also liber- 
ally made openly by him, against Mr. Sergeant. * * * 
When he asked an office of Council, I confess that upon 
20 yrs general knowledge of him, I preferred another. * * 
By a glare of evidence it appears that Mr. H. not only 
refused to take & subscribe an Oath of Allegiance, ordered 
by law, but that he influenced others to decline it. This 
conduct brought him very naturally under the suspicion 
of being a Tory; for tho' his connection with the army 
might perhaps excuse him from the test, yet wherefore he 
should, if a Whig, set himself against this necessary mode 
of discrimination between Friends & Foes, is hard to be 
accounted for. * * j am glad however, as I hear that 
Mr. H. resents the suspicion, that Congress have at length 
prescribed a form for their officers that will enable him to 
yield a Testimony of this nature without any scruple.* * 
But to return. The omission of taking these attestations 

''John Arndt was a Justice of the Peace for Northampton county and 
as such was authorized by President Wharton to collect forage etC, which 
he reported as very difficult to do "as Col. Hooper in the quarter master's 
department allows to pay * * * prices * * * higher than wee are 
authorized to pay by law." (Pa. Arch., Vol. vi, p. 336.) Hooper with his 
good free English blood knew that the soldiers had to be fed at any price, 
law or no law, but the close fisted Teuton would let them starve rather than 
run the risk of an overcharge; so it is plain there was bad blood between 
the two men leading up to the altercation. 



16 Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 

delayed the sending the proof to York. Mr. Sergeant did 
not come back till lately when he declined to attest to the 
writing he had drawn up. * * At Reading Mr. Hooper 
met him & acted as above. * * Mr. Sergeant was the 
smallest, Mr. Arndt the oldest & most infirm of the late 
Council of Safety. They were very unequal to H. in power 
of body & his advantage over them was great." 

The closing paragraph gives a charming bit of local 
color to the portraiture of the participants that is unusual 
in the writings of those busy times. The following day a 
letter from the Board of War, with one from Hooper, was 
laid before Congress and referred to Thomas McKean, 
Abraham Clark and Nathaniel Scudder. On February 
17th, this Committee brought in a very severe report 
which was taken into consideration and thereupon the 
following resolution was passed. 

Whereas by the resolution of the 14 instant the Com- 
missioners appointed by the State of Pennsylvania were 
authorized and directed to purchase and store in maga- 
zine, 30,000, barrels of flour, on the east side of the 
Susquehanna, & by a letter, since laid before Congress, 
from R. L. Hooper, Nathaniel Falconer and Jonathan 
Mifflin Jun. three of the Superintendents appointed by 
the Board of War, in pursuance of a resolve of the 15 
January last, it appears that the said Superintendants 
are making contracts for executing the business entrusted 
with the said Commissioners, contrary to the intentions 
of Congress expressed in these said resolutions; and 
whereas, it also appears by the aforesaid letter, that the 
above named Superintendants, without any authority, in 
direct violation of the Laws of Pennsylvania and contrary 
to the instructions given by the Board of War, have 
presumed to fix and ascertain the prices of several other 
articles wanted in the Army, much higher than fixed by 
law in the State, directing the quarter masters to govern 
themselves by such illegal rates : therefore. 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 17 

Resolved that the Board of War be directed imme- 
diately to recal and suspend the said R L Hooper, 
Nathaniel Falconer and Jonathan Mifflin Jr. who are 
required to lay before Congress their proceedings and 
accounts. 

Less than a week before this action in Congress, 
Hooper promulgated the following carefully prepared and 
thoroughly business like circular letter^^ bearing directly 
on the subject at issue. 

Reading Feb: 12'': 1778 
Sin- 
As you are appointed by the superintendants for form- 
ing magazines of Provisions for the army, to purchase 
wheat & manufacture it into flour. I am directed by Major 
Gl. Mifflin Q. M. G. to request you will also purchase all 
the Rye Spelts Indian corn & oats you can at the follow- 
ing rates viz'. Rye @ 12s. ^ bushl. Spelts & oats at 7s. 
6d. ^ bushel & Indian corn at 9s. ^ bushel. 

You must grind all the Rye Indian corn & spelts you 
purchase into Horse feed which when ground you must* 
pack into flour barrels & secure in the way you are 
directed by the Superintendants in the 4"'. Article of their 
Instructions. 

You shall be paid four pounds ^ hundred bushells for 
grinding packing & delivering out, & two pence ^ bushel 
on all the oats you purchase with a reasonable allowance 
for storeage and expences. 

Cap'. N. Falconer superintendant of the district in 
which you reside will furnish you with money when & as 
often as it will be necessary. And on every monduy you 
must make a return to him of all the grain you have pur- 
chased & of the quantity you have issued on orders. 

In issuing you must be directed by the 7"". Article of 
your Instructions from the superintendants. 

'^In Collection of William Nelson, Paterson, N. J. 



18 Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 

From those persons who refuse to thresh out their grain 
& to deliver to you so much of it as they can reasonably 
spare you are to seize it in the straw, and to be directed 
by the first article of your Instructions from the 
Superintendants. 

You must collect all the grain you can, & you must not 

delay any time in doing it. 

I am Sir Your h. s. 
Robt. Lettis Hooper, 
Dep^ Q^ M. Gen'. 

On February 21, a letter from General Washington, 
dated Valley Forge, February 15, 1778, to the three 
Superintendents concerning the distress of the army for 
meat and forage, was laid before Congress and read, 
while four days later President Wharton requested 
Congress to furnish him with sundry papers relative to 
the action of Congress on the 17th instant. Within a 
fortnight after the rebuke by Congress, Hooper cured the 
chief charge against him by subscribing to the new form 
of oath, which his former investigator Levers communi- 
cated to "Timothy Matlack Sec'y of the Comwlth of 
Penna."'' 

Easton, March 8, 1778 
Sir; — 

Herewith I send to you a Duplicate Certificate of Col. 
Hooper's having taken the Oaths agreeable to the Resolve 

of Congress. 

I am, Sir, etc 

Robert Levers. 

This whole business of refusing to take the old oath 
and taking the new one, although something of a matter 
of form, had also some substance to sustain it and the 
man, in Hooper's position, who maintained the courage 
of his convictions, is entitled to respect and consideration, 

•* Penna. Archives, Vol. vi, p. 344. 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 19 

as showing a determined spirit to fight for what he 
thought was right, which after all was the keynote of 
the revolutionary war. His subscribing to the Oath 
evidently ended this tempest in a tea-pot, leaving only 
an echo behind, for on April 9, 1778, Congress ordered 
"That a Warrant issue on the Treasurer for $133,333.33 
in favor of Robert Lettis Hooper Esq to answer an Order 
of the 3rd day of April Instant in his favor drawn by 
Major General Greene, Quarter-Master General, for the 
use of his Department, who is to be accountable." 

The^ echo we find in a letter Hooper indited to Vice- 
President George Bryan of Pennsylvania.^" 

Sir:— . Phila. Aug' 31, 1778. 

Permit me to address you on a subject which has for 
some time past given me much uneasyness, as from false 
representations made to the Honorable the Supreme 
Executive Council, that honorable Body have conceived 
me to be a dangerous person in the State violent and 
ungovernable. I cannot deny to you honourable Sir, that 
I have a very great contempt for Mr Sarjent and Mr 
Arndt as private Gentlemen. They have made several 
attempts to ruin my reputation as an Officer in the service 
of the States and have induced the honourable Council to 
exhibit charges against me, which Mr Sarjent & Mr Arndt 
could not support. This drew me into a personal Quarrell 
with them * * * and whilst I was warm with resentment 
against them I wrote a Letter to the Honble Governeur 
Morris, the particulars in Expression which Letter I dont 
well remember but beheve, from information that they 
were generally ungentlemanly, and indecent. I hope Sir, 
you will beheve, & that the Honourable Council will believe 
I have long had a great personal regard for the late 
Worthy President and you, that I have ever had reason 
to esteem those Gentlemen in Council with whom I have 
the honour to be acquainted as worthy Ci tizens and that 

^' Penna. Archives, 2nd Ser., Vol. iii, p. 236. 



20 Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 

I am sorry to find the expressions in that letter may be 
construed to extend to you or them. Permit me then to 
request you will be pleased to assure Council that I never 
meant to reflect on their honour's honorable body. 

As we said, we should hear further distant reverbera- 
tions from the old charges and they come this time in one 
of Joe Reed's characteristic carping letters, to General 
Greene, in which he slandered every one from Mifflin down, 
so that Hooper could not of course escape, and which I 
only quote to show how prominently Hooper was in the 
Public eye.- p^^^^ ^^^^ 5^ ^773 

"I confess I never was able to discern the Policy or 
Wisdom of continuing under you Men devoted at all Points 
to those who were the fixed & inveterate Enemies of the 
Department, who were quite in another Interest & who I 
firmly believe only remained in office to cover more effec- 
tually their own Conduct and embarrass and betray you. 
That there are some of these I suppose you cannot be 
ignorant, but the person whom I principally refer to is 
Col. Hooper & who I verily believe was brought in for 
the above Purposes. * * Col. Hooper not only harangued 
& exerted every Power, but the Clerks of office were em- 
ployed in Writing Tickets and then march'd off with all 
their Dependants for the like purpose [of voting for 
members hostile to the authority of the State in which 
they were to act.l *****! am inclined to think 
Congress will soon suspend Hooper for some practices 
not very honorable to himself or the Department." 

Six weeks later we hear a little more of it when Congress, 
on December 22, 1778, received a report from the Com- 
mittee to whom was referred sundry letters from Major 
General Mifflin, late Quarter Master General that "it 
appears probable that during the winter 1777 and the 
spring, 1778 when the army was in the suffering state 



« N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., Lee Papers, Vol. iii, p. 246. 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 21 

before mentioned, sundry brigades of waggons in the 
publick service were sent to New Windsor, Newburgh 
Hartford, & Boston with fiour and Iron on private 
accounts and brought back private property. That it 
also appears probably from said affidavits, that the said 
Flour & Iron had been taken as for public use at the 
regulated prices then fixed by law and that the Waggons 
during such Transportation were subsisted at the differ- 
ent posts on the publick forage. That Colonel Robert 
Lettis Hooper, then and now Deputy Quarter Master 
General appears to have been the principal Director of 
the said Waggons at that time." 

For some reason the consideration of the subject was 
postponed, apparently indefinitely and only cropped up 
again the following spring when President Reed anew 
put his finger in the pie, by addressing a lengthy com- 
munication, on April 15, 1779, to Congress, covering a 
copy of a report of the Joint Committee of the Council of 
Penna. in which among other things it was said : 

"2ndly For that complaint having been made by the 
Council of Safety of the great abuse of public Waggons 
by Robert Lettis Hooper Jr. Deputy Quarter Master Gen- 
eral, to the Board of War in January & February 1778, 
that Board without giving any hearing to the Council to 
support their charge, heard Mr Hooper's story, supported 
by ex-parte affidavits and acquitted him, the Council then 
sitting at Lancaster & the complainants & witnesses being 
in Northampton, seventy miles off, unacquainted with 
any such proceeding. 

* * * * * * V 

3rdly, The said Hooper presuming upon this favourable 
reception, fell upon the Attorney General of the State 
who had ex officio drawn up the said representation and 
beat him; but not satisfied with this wrote a letter to the 
Honble Governeur Morris Esquire, a Member of Congress 
on a committee at the Valley Forge, boasting of said 



22 Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 

exploit, and that as he had horse-whipped the Attorney- 
General, he proposed to go through with the Council and 
should not stop at the President of the State. Which letter 
was publickly shown by the said Mr. Morris to the Com- 
mander-in-Chief and others. But being demanded by the 
delegates of Pennsylvania as a high Insult to the State, was 
refused upon the allegation of its being a private letter." 

No action was taken upon this appeal that I can find, 
but whether it was the source of future trouble for 
Hooper, or whether he got into fresh difficulties, certain 
it is that he was remanded for military Court Martial for 
some offence in which the Supreme Executive Council of 
Pennsylvania took a hand, for it summoned witnesses to 
"attend the Tryal of Mr Hooper at Morristown;"" and 
it is doubtless to this body Hooper refers in a letter to 
his assistant Richard Backhouse, from Easton, February 
23, 1780, advising him "My Tryal is put off till Doctor 
Shippen's is over," when he writes "We have nothing to 
fear from the mahce of that base Junto."" At the very 
time of this letter Congress was considering changes in 
the Quarter Master's and Commissary departments of the 
army, and on July 15th, 1780, the same day that Washing- 
ton, from Preakness, transmitted to Congress the findings 
of the Court Martial in Doctor Shippen's case, that body 
adopted "a new regulation for the Quarter Master's 
department" materially reducing the number of Deputy 
Quarter Masters General and abolishing after August 1st, 
"all posts without troops there stationed and in the Con- 
tinental service" as burthensome and expensive. This 
action of course legislated Hooper out of office and natur- 
ally put an end to his proposed Tryal which then could 
have availed nothing. That this was the result we find by 
a notice in The New Jersey Gazette for October 11, 1780, 
from Robert Lettis Hooper, "Late D. Q. M. Gen." 

♦1 Penna. Colonial Records, Vol. 12, p. 250. 
*' Mss. in Historical Society of Penna. 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 23 

Belleville October 10, 1780. 
All persons who have any demands against the late 
Quarter Master General's Department for contracts per- 
formed and services done under the direction of the 
Subscriber for the Use of the United States, are requested 
to meet him in Easton, on the tenth day of November 
next, then and there to make a final settlement of their 
accounts, that he may be sooner enabled to present his 
accounts and to do that justice to the good people in his 
late district which the wisdom and justice of Congress have 
pointed out in their late resolutions 

Robert L. Hooper, 

Late D. Q. M. Gen. 

While this advertisement brings to a chronological 
conclusion the mihtary career of Colonel Robert Lettis 
Hooper, Jr., we shall go back for some important 
incidents connected with it. 

There are a number of letters from Hooper during the 
years 1778 and 1779, written chiefly from Easton to Gen- 
eral Edward Hand, among the Hand Papers in the 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, some of which are of 
much interest, especially when he writes from 

Newtown, Bucks Co. Jany. 15, 1779 
"In Northampton County we have a very considerable 
Shoe Factory, the foundation of which I laid and the 
Board of War has in a great measure put this Factory 
and the disposal (or distribution) of the shoes under my 
care. * * * * Qn your order I will at any time send you 
from one to five hundred pairs and they are good. Ap- 
propoz do you want a smart pair of Boots? * * * * 
This Factory I have told you of, produces near 1000 pairs 
of shoes a Month." 

Hooper was one of the officers to whom Washington 
propounded a series of questions, in the Spring of 1779, 



24 Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 

as to the best means of reaching the country of the Six 
Nations, and his answers will be found in the Washington 
Manuscripts in the Library of Congress/' As early as 
January, 1779, when this Western Expedition, commonly 
called SulHvan's Expedition, was in the air he wrote to 
Hand "I have my Eye to what you hint of an Expedi- 
tion. I will have 50 good Saltpetered Tongues prepared 
for you and Mount my Hobby Horse and show you, on 
paper, all the Country between the Delaware and Susque- 
hannah. I have an accurate survey of the Delaware." 
Four days later he writes, "I will soon furnish you with 
the Draughts of Delaware and Susquehannah"; while on 
March 15, he says, evidently in great glee over the honor, 
"Soon after you left me, I was called to Head Quarters" 
to give information on the subject you have often hinted 
to me and to require my assistance in the Map way. This 
part has been delayed by the essential part being in 
Philadelphia. I am anxious to compleat it & you shall 
have it when done."" These communications show that 
Hooper's knowledge as a surveyor had come into play in 
a more important matter and in a very different way, 
doubtless, from what he anticipated when he was running 
lines at Fort Pitt, although the advance rumbhngs of the 
coming revolution could be distinctly heard and felt at 
that time. 

Before this, as later, he was specially entrusted with 
the care of British prisoners. On this point the following 
letter" addressed " To Elias Boudinot, Esquire Comy. 
Genl. of Prisoners at Reading," is both interesting and 
important. 

*^ Friedenwald's Calendar, p. 144. 

** Anent Washington's Queries. 

^ Hooper's ability as a Map draughtsman is well exhibited in ' 'A 
Draught of Mr. Joseph Wharton Junr's Land on the Waters of Tannaderra, 
Containing Fifteen Thousand and seventy-four Acres with allowance of 
Five p. cent etc. Surveyed in May and June 1770 p. Robert L. Hooper " 
in the Wilson Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 
Collection of William Nelson, Paterson, N. J. 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 25 

T^ Q- Bethlehem Nov' 29"' 1777 

Dear Sir: — 

I wrote you yesterday by Express, and sent you a List 
of all the Brittish prisoners in this County with M' Dikins's" 
Bond & parole. 

This will be delivered to you by Major Edmenson," who 
has given me his parole to go to Little York — he is 
accompanyed by Ensign [Lieutenant]*® Rich''. Hankey, 
Lieute [Ensignf** W™ Finch & Doct. Minzey" whose paroles 
I have, with the Majors sent to Colo: Holler" — 

I am told a French Gentleman who has the Rank of 
a Major in our Service is made Prisoner of War, and I 
understand the Marquis De Fiet^^ interests himself much 
in his Exchange. Could nothing be effected for Major 
Edmeson on that head? 

It gives me pleasure to inform you that Major Edmeson 
has merited from me every indulgence that I as a Conti- 
nental Officer could shew him, & I can with the greatest 
certainty recommend him to you as a Gentleman of strict 
honour — if he is not exchanged he wishes to return to this 
County, in which if he is indulged, I will place him at 
Nazareth, unless otherwise directed, and be answerable 
for the Major in every respect 

You'll please to add to the Gen'. List sent you by 
Express John Frederick Naulder taken at Trenton Decern'. 
26-77" — a private Capt. Friends Com^. of Count Donops 
Chaseurs — he came here with our Sick this day & I have 
sent him on to Colo: Holler — 

I am Dear Sir 
Your most hble Servt 
Rob'. Lettis Hooper, jr. 

*' Thomas Dilkes, Major 49th Regiment of Foot. 

*^ Probably Major Charles Edmonstone, of the 18th British regiment. 

"Erased, and "Ensign" interlined. He was 20th Regiment of Foot. 

* Erased, and "Lieute" interiined. Of the 27th Regiment of Foot. 

•* Probably Surgeon Archibald Menzies, of the 27th British regiment. 

'^ Col. Henry HaJler, wagon master in the Pennsylvania military service. 

" Marquis de la Fayette. 

** December 26, 1776, is meant, of course. 



20 Colonel Bohert Lettis Hooper. 

Washington seems to have reposed especial confidence 
in Hooper, as we find he was given charge of the 
distinguished Baron Riedesel, wife, children and suite 
and General William Phillips, captured at Saratoga, under 
orders from the Commander-in-Chief that they should 
be quartered only at Bethlehem or Nazareth, Pa., and 
their paroles of Nov. 15, 1779, were sent by Washington 
to Hooper.^^ Hooper's genial nature and social qualities 
may have had not a little to do with this assignment, as 
these distinguished prisoners, especially Riedesel, were 
treated with all the consideration commensurate with 
their positions. That Hooper possessed these quahties is 
shown by several letters that we have. From New York, 
April 10, 1774, he tells^^ of meeting at Flatbush the vener- 
able Cadwallader Golden who he says, "is the best real 
Picture of an Old Man that I ever saw. He is eighty-seven 
years old, has his hearing and senses as well as ever he 
had, without marks of age, except his eyes which grow 
dim and his head covered with strong white hair. His 
Madeira is excellent and he is no churl; indeed he pushed 
me so hard that I was obliged to shear off." Five years 
later on Christmas Day, 1779, he wrote to General Hand, 
"I shall be happy to see you at my House and to crack 
One Bottle of good Madeira with you." The underscoring 
of the "One Bottle" tells of the shrunken cellars of those 
days and the impossibility of replenishment. 

As he was generous to himself and his friends at home, 
so he was to the poor fellows who were suffering in the 
field. We find him among those subscribing £5000 to 
the Bank of Pennsylvania, organized by Robert Morris 
"for the purpose of supplying the Army of the United 
States with provisions for two months," which was 
opened July 17, 1781, with a total capital of £315,000. 
Hooper was doubtless a man of large fortune for those 

^^ Etwein's Diary at Bethlehem in the Revolution. Penna. Mag. op 
Hist, and Biog., Vol. xiii, p. 88. 

^8 Penna. Mag. op Hist, and Biog., Vol. xviii, p. 513. 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 27 

days, with decidedly speculative tastes, which was one 
of^the evils of the times and brought so many of promi- 
nence to ruin. He inherited a taste for great schemes in 
lands and in business enterprises from his great-grand- 
father, grandfather and father, each of whom, as we have 
seen in the earher pages of this sketch, were engaged 
along the same Hnes as he followed. He was an extensive 
land speculator or, as he would be called to-day, not im- 
properly, "land grabber," being listed, as early as 1775, 
for unpaid taxes on tracts he had taken up in Bedford, 
Northampton, Northumberland and Westmoreland coun- 
ties in Pennsylvania. He also was interested one-third 
in "Iron Mine Tract of land on the Southerly waters of 
Walunpanpack, in the county of Northampton, Penna."" 
But his largest deal seems to have been in partnership 
with James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration of 
Independence and Associate Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the United States by appointment of Washington, 
and Simeon DeWitt, Surveyor General of the State of 
New York for half a century until his death, "to adven- 
ture" in the "vacant and unappropriated lands between 
the Hne of the Indian Cession made at Fort Stanwix, in 
1768, and the Northern Boundary of Pennsylvania," in 
the State of New York.'' It seemed such a land of promise 
that they called it "The Canaan Company" and Hooper 
attended to all the details of the business at Albany and 
on the ground; but it does not appear that the promise 
was fulfilled; on the contrary it seems to have been, like 
most all of such "adventures" at that time, a financial 
failure for the original purchasers. Likewise he was in 
partnership with George Taylor, the Signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, who came to this country as a 
redemptioner and was bound to the iron master at Dur- 
ham, Pa., whose widow he subsequently married when he 



" Letter to James Wilson, March 9, 1787, Hist. See. of Penna. 

58 Vide Agreement of May 4, 1785, in WUson Papers, Hist. Soc. of Penna 



28 Colonel Rohert Lettis Hooper. 

became proprietor of the works/' Richard Backhouse and 
Colonel Isaac Sidman, in the Durham Iron Works from 
early in 1780 until the death of Taylor in February of the 
following year, when the surviving partners became in- 
volved in disputes with his executors, which seem to have 
been constantly agitated during the next five years before 
a settlement was made and which must have required 
very delicate handling, from the fact that Hooper was 
one of the executors of Taylor's will, by which Taylor 
bequeathed to Hooper "a neat silver-mounted small 
sword to be thus engraved 'In memory of George Taylor, 
Esquire.' " 

About this time Hooper followed his friend Taylor's 
example and became deeply interested in the Ringwood 
Iron Works, in New Jersey, by marrying the widow of 
their owner. We know by a deed dated July 3, 1759, that 
prior thereto "Robert Lettis Hooper Junior of Kinsbury, 
Burlington county. Merchant," had married Margaret 
Biles, "grand-daughter of Thomas Lambert of Notting- 
ham in said county," and we also know that she was 
living with him at Easton as late as April 28, 1779, when 
he writes to General Hand, "Mrs. Hooper has been col- 
lecting Shad for two weeks to fill a Bbl. at the moderate 
price of 5/ and 7/6 p. Shad."^" We are, however, in the 
dark as to when or where she died, but on October 31, 
1781, at Trenton, he took out a license to marry Elizabeth 
Erskine. There is a very charming letter framed in the 
Hewitt Mansion, at Ringwood, dated September 7, 1781, 
from Hooper, to his old friend Backhouse, announcing his 
intended engagement. He writes, "I have long wished 
to visit you, but, my worthy Friend, I have been much 
engaged. I must not trifle with you & in plain truth I 



" Vide History of the Durham Iron Works, Proc. Bucks County His- 
torical Society, Vol. i, p. 232, wherein it is disputed that George Taylor 
was a Redemptioner, with very good cause, as there were few, if any, Re- 
demptioners who were not aliens of Great Britain. 
•"Hand Pa{)€rs Hist. Soc. of Penna. 



Colonel Robert Leitis Hooper. 29 

have been hunting for a wife. I am sure among all my 
numerous acquaintances there is not one that esteems 
me more than you do, and I love you with the genuine 
warmth of true friendship. You then, Dear Sir, must be 
pleased when I tell you that I am engaged to Mrs Erskine, 
a Lady high in estimation for her good sense, affabihty 
and sweetness of Temper & blessed withall with a plenti- 
full Fortune. I assure you that I do on the most deliber- 
ate principles of honour think that comfort and felicity 
will attend the choice I have made."®^ 

Elizabeth Erskine was the widow of Robert Erskine, 
F. R. S., who was sent to this country in 1772, by "The 
London Company" to take charge of the "New York 
and New Jersey Iron Works," sometimes called "The 
American Ringwood Company in Bergen county."®^ 
Erskine was eminent in many branches of science and by 
resolution of Congress, July 25, 1777, was appointed 
"Geographer and Surveyor General to the Army of the 
United States," at Washington's Head-quarters. He 
was born in Scotland September 7, 1735, and died at his 
house at Ringwood, N. J., October 2, 1780, and is buried 
there, a monument being erected to him by order of 
Washington,®^ The Marquis de Chastellux stopped at 
Ringwood, December 19, 1780, and called upon Mrs. 
Erskine. He says, "I entered a very handsome house, 
where everybody was in mourning, Mr. Erskine being 
dead two months before. Mrs. Erskine, his widow, is 
about forty, and did not appear the less fresh and tranquil 
for her misfortune." In the Pennsylvania Journal for 
July 6, 1782, the adjournment of the New Jersey legis- 
lature is noted and among the important acts passed was 

'* The Ringwood Iron Works and the Durham Iron Works in more 
recent times became the property of Edward Cooper and Abraham S. 
Hewitt of New York, whose family still own them and this letter is in the 
possession of Mrs. Abraham S. Hewitt. 

'' History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N. J., by John Hall, 
p. 316. 

°' William Nelson in Mag. of Amer. Hist., Vol. iii, p. 579. 



30 Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 

one "To vest in Robert Lettis Hooper, the younger, and 
Elizabeth his wife and the survivor of them with powers 
of agency, to take charge of and manage the estate of the 
American Company, commonly so called in the counties 
of Bergen and Morris and elsewhere in this state, for the 
purposes mentioned therein." Mrs. Ehzabeth Hooper 
died in 1796 and her husband survived until the next 
year when he died on the 30th of July, 1797, in his sixty- 
seventh year, at his residence called Belleville, near 
Trenton. His will dated July 12 and proved August 7, 
1797, shows that he left no issue*'^ as the residuary estate 
went to his sister Isabella Johnson of Perth Amboy.®^ 
Hooper's elegant seat "at the Falls of Delaware about a 
mile above Trenton," containing 100 acres, was purchased 
by him April 3, 1779. It had previously been the residence 
of Sir John St Clair^^ and then of Lord Stirling." After 
Hooper's death Belleville passed into the hands of the 
Rutherfurd family and was advertised for Sale by John 
Rutherfurd in 1806. 

•* Among the records of Christ Church, Philadelphia, there is a baptism, 
May 1, 1789 of Robert Lettice Hooper, son of Robert and Eve Hooper, 
born July 2, 1788. There is also a burial, September 3, 1790 of Robert 
Lettes son of Robert Hooper. As these records were usually made by the 
Verger, a person of ordinary or no education, and not by the rector, I 
think there can be little doubt but that this was the infant of Robert 
Lettis and Ehzabeth Hooper. 

"^ In the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record for 1902, 
p. 248, in "Some Annandale Johnstons in America" it is stated that John, 
son of Andrew and Catharine Van Cortland Johnson, married " Isabella 
daughter of Rev. Morris Lettice Hooper of Trenton, N. J." She was of 
course the daughter of Robert Lettis Hooper, the 2nd of the name. 

•* Sir John St Clair was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 22nd Regiment and 
Deputy Quarter-Master-General of all the British Forces in America. He 
came with Braddock and was wounded near Fort Du Quesne. He married 
Elizabeth Moland of Philadelphia, March 17, 1762, and died at Bellville, 
Elizabethtown, N. J., November 26, 1767, to which place he must have 
removed from Trenton and named his new home after his old one. There 
is an original miniature of him painted by Copley and signed " J. S. C. 1759 " 
in the Hist. Soc. of 'Penna.Vide Penna. Mag. of Hist, and Bigg, Vol. ix, p. 1. 
"Hall's History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N. J., p. 102. 



Colonel Robert Lettis Hooper. 31 

Robert Lettis Hooper was in every sense of the word a 
man of affairs and he seems never to have been idle or 
even slothful. When towards the close of the war it 
became necessary for the inhabitants of Trenton to meet 
to consider a plan of Association to prevent trade and 
intercourse with the enemy, they got together on July 11, 
1782, and chose Hooper chairman, who the following day 
issued an address "on behalf of the Committee" urging 
the people to desist from such actions."* He was one of 
the Justices for Hunterdon county and Judge of the Com- 
mon Pleas in 1782, 1787 and 1792; succeeded John Cleves 
Symmes as Vice-President of the Council of New Jersey 
in November, 1785, which he continued to hold for three 
years, being Chairman of the Joint Meeting of the Legis- 
lature in 1788, and during the absence of the Governor 
acted in his place."' He was an Honorary member of the 
Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey, 
elected at the second meeting of the society held at 
Princeton, N. J., September 24, 1783, along with EUas 
Boudinot, President of Congress, William Livingston, 
Governor of the State, Frederick Frelinghuysen and 
Thomas Henderson. 

Among the members of the Union Fire Company, 
instituted May 8, 1747, we find "Robert Lettis Hooper 
Vice President of the Council and the man who first laid 
out Mill Hill and Bloomsbury for a town."" He was also 
the first Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New 
Jersey of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, which was 
instituted by a charter from England December 18, 1786, 
and he was the first Senior Warden of Trenton Lodge 
No 5, which was chartered in 1787, to which by his will 

" Raum's History of Trenton, pp. 366-371, where all the proceedings 
will be found. 

" Letter to James Wilson, Nov. 9, 1785. " Our Governor must leave 
Council next Friday and will not return before Monday. I must take the 
chair and being so circumstanced I cannot come to you." Hist. Soc. of 
Penna. 

'9 Raum's History of Trenton, p. 398. 



32 Colonel Bohert Lettis Hooper. 

he gave "my silver hilted sword now in their possession, 
in testimony of the esteem and affection I bear to the 
fraternity and to that Lodge in particular, and that the 
said sword be new mounted by my Executors and paid 
for out of my Estate." This is doubtless the sword 
bequeathed to him by George Taylor; but the Lodge has 
no record of it. 

Hooper possessed a distinctly interesting personality 
and was quite a picturesque character, ever open to any 
scheme that presented an opportunity for adventure or 
profit, but, from the records that we have examined in 
the course of the investigations for this memoir, there 
was apparently more of the former than of the latter 
gained, unless it was in his last matrimonial speculation 
entered into when he was past his fiftieth year. Certainly 
his career as we have related it warrants the surprise 
expressed at the opening, that it has not been told 
before, and we shall close this relation with the words of 
his obituary in Claypoole's Daily Advertiser for August 
11, 1797: "He had long the charge of important offices, 
civil and military, which he executed with fidelity and 
was very much respected in his private relations of life."" 




"^.^ 



^* It is a great pleasure, as also a plain duty, to express my appreciation 
of the assistance I have received in the gathering of material for this 
article from John W. Jordan, LL.D., Librarian of the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania; William Nelson, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the New 
Jersey Historical Society; Dr. B. F. Fackenthal, Jr., President of the 
Thomas Iron Company; and F. C. Griffith, Esq., of Trenton, N. J. 



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